A farmer’s recipe for tidings of comfort and joy: Polenta & Stew

Photo credit Abel & Cole

I’m pretty sure the first soft food I had growing up had to be polenta and stew. There’s no other explanation for my deep love for what is historically peasant food in Italian culture. (Thank you peasants!) I’m sure I tasted some risotto or gnawed on a biscotti prior to or near the same time, but polenta, for me, reigns supreme. 

There are lots of different adaptations and improvisations for polenta (but tubes of “quick polenta” in the grocery store are blasphemy). In my opinion, the best way is prepared from scratch, mounded in a big slab with lots of stew, wine and family. 

The recipe below is very adaptable, and can be made with either standard or specialty ingredients — in other words, you can make it like a Honda Accord or a Bentley — and I’ve noted these approaches accordingly on the recipe. However you decide to go, you will enjoy it. Just be sure to leave yourself plenty of time to let the stew bubble on the stove and rest overnight. That’s the worst shortcut you can take.

The Stew

Feeds 6 + leftovers

Make sure to prepare this part of the dish the day before you want to eat it. Be sure to have your workspace mise en place like the chefs do: a place for everything, and everything in its place. And don’t worry if it feels like you’re making an ungodly amount of stew. In our house, we make enough to have leftovers for Sunday brunch. (See “Leftovers,” below.)

Ingredients

With notes

White wine
Open some and have a glass…it’s going to be a long day.

2 ounces olive oil and 1 stick of butter
I like to mix my olive oil and butter. Do yourself a favor and get some really good EVOO and either Organic Valley or Kerigold brand butter.

2 cups celery, finely chopped
Get a full bunch, trim it up the stalks and cut the pieces as close to the same size as possible. It matters.

2 cups carrots, finely chopped
I like the bulk carrots with the skin on. I think the flavor is better. Try and cut the pieces the same size as the celery.

4 cups yellow onion, finely chopped
Okay, here is a deal breaker. Invest in either Maui Sweet Onions, Walla Walla Onions or even Vidalia if in season. The taste on these once they are caramelized is insanely good compared to a basic yellow onion, and elevates the stew.

2 cloves garlic
I like garlic, but it doesn’t always like me, so I go easy. It’s polarizing so going light won’t mess up the stew. I like to peel them, then smash them with the flat side of the knife. The end results should be smashed but intact cloves of garlic.

6 pounds of beef (USDA Choice +)
I’ve had beef, lamb, and chicken stews…I love them all. I like to use the tri-tip cut, cut in 8-ounce portions like a small steak. The tri-tip has great flavor and marbling that will hold together during the long cooking process. Plated, your guests will basically have a small steak on top of their polenta. Cubes of miscellaneous cuts often are either too tough or disintegrate during the cooking process and then your guests think you were cheap on the portions. Trust me.

More white wine (1/3 of a bottle)
I like to use a dry white like chardonnay or sauvignon blanc, and most French or Italian whites work well too. It’s to deglaze the pan and have a nip or two. 

1/2 tablespoon juniper berries (optional)
This is optional but it does give the stew some depth, like bay leaves. Don’t go overboard, though — a little dab will do you.

1 tablespoon pepper
Coarse or fine ground is good.

3-4 sage leaves
Grab a small clamshell package of fresh sage in the produce aisle or from your backyard, but use fresh, if available. Don’t be lazy.

1 tablespoon rosemary leaves
From your potted rosemary bush of course, or fresh (see comment about sage leaves above).

2 (ish) bay leaves
Depth, it's all about depth. Fish them out and discard them prior to serving.

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg or ground clove
I’ve seen/used variations of nutmeg or clove, either/or. Clove I feel gives a little more sweetness and “fall” flavor.

1 big can (28 ounces) tomato puree
Look, I like Cento brand not-from-concentrate puree. It’s good, period.

3 big cans (28ounces) peeled tomatoes
Again, for me, Cento brand San Marzano Pomodoro tomatoes are the best. I like whole tomatoes because during the cooking process I will start to press them against the inside of the pot and they will start to break down but hold their texture to the bite. Crushed tomatoes tend to just disappear in the sauce after 2 days of cooking.

1 can (28 ounces) tomato sauce (optional)
This is optional but I like it for texture. Again go with Cento brand.

Kosher salt and pepper
To taste.

To assemble the stew:

Throw the olive oil and butter into a heavy-bottom pot like a Dutch oven until it starts melting and coming together. Not too hot, though — we’re not booking for brown butter here. Now put the onions, garlic, carrots and celery in and start sautéing them. Go slow and take it easy. Sweat them slowly so they get really soft without burning the onions or garlic. If necessary, add a little more butter. Once the veggies are nice and soft, like a meal unto themselves, add the white wine to deglaze the pot. (Be sure to scrub the bottom of the pot with your wooden spatula to get all the brown goodness off.) Open a second bottle of wine if the first one had a hole in it.

Now season your cut of meat with salt and pepper as you would a regular steak headed to the grill. Put the meat in the pot, turn up the heat a little, and stir occasionally so each side of the meat gets a nice browning to it. Cook it a good 30 to 45 minutes.

Add your aromatics: the juniper berries, sage, rosemary, and bay leaves. Stir them in and cook with the meat for 5 minutes. Then add the peeled tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato puree and nutmeg or clove. Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat and let it simmer uncovered for about 2 hours, stirring occasionally. Maybe a little more salt or pepper to taste. (Don’t go overboard on the salt, though, because the polenta will have butter and cheese, both of which are salty.)

At this point, I stop the cooking process and put my pot of stew into an ice bath to cool it down. This is easily done by putting the stopper in your kitchen sink and filling the sink with about half water and half ice. Leave the pot in there for 30 minutes to cool it rapidly. Then wipe the excess water from the outside of the pot and stick it in the refrigerator overnight. 

The next day, about 4 hours before you intend to eat it, open the pot and skim the fat off the top. This will help keep the grease off your lips and provide just a better-eating stew. Bring the stew to a nice simmer and then reduce the heat so it just sits there and occasionally bubbles. 4 hours at low simmer should heat the stew through all the way and the time spent overnight will really help integrate the flavors of all the components.

The Polenta

A lot of times when I tell someone I’m making polenta and stew and they say, “Oh, it's all about the stew,” as though the polenta is just an afterthought, an unappreciated vessel for the stew. Not so my friend: the polenta is equally important to the overall experience. Like the dough of a pizza, it matters. 

Ingredients

1.5 cups yellow cornmeal (degerminated) polenta
Golden Pheasant brand polenta. You can find it in almost every mainstream grocery store in the baking aisle next to the flours and cornbread. If you choose to use something from a tube it will not be the same. Fair warning.

2 cups water
Decent tap water or bottled water works.

2 cups chicken broth
Dealers choice on this brand. I usually grab Swansons.

2 cups whole or nonfat milk
Whatever kind of milk that’s in your refrigerator and actually comes from a cow.

1/2 stick of butter
Cut into pieces to gradually add to finish off the polenta

32 ounces Monterey jack cheese cut into 1”x1” cubes
I like Tillamook brand. You should use Tillamook.

8 ounces shredded Parmesan cheese
I like Sartori or BelGioioso brands. 

To assemble the polenta:

In a large pot, combine the water, chicken broth and milk and bring to a simmer. Don’t heat it too fast or you can scorch the milk. (Traditionally we use something similar to this copper pot that tends to heat up rather quickly and conducts heat very well.  It’s just tradition.) 

Slowly pour the polenta into the simmering liquid using a whisk to make sure the polenta stays separated and doesn’t clump up. As you stir, the polenta will start to thicken up and look like Cream of Wheat cereal. Continue to stir, and stir, and stir, about every 2-3 minutes for a good hour. The heat should be medium to low so you don’t burn the bottom of the pan. Otherwise you will give the polenta an off flavor and spend the next two days scrubbing the bottom of the pot with SOS pads.

After an hour, the polenta should become really soft and all the liquid will be assimilated. The stirring will start to become more difficult. If the grains of polenta are soft to the bite the polenta is ready. Start adding the butter cubes and mix them in nice and evenly. 

Now take the jack cheese cubes and start dropping them in one by one as you keep stirring, and watch them melt into the polenta. Once all the jack cheese is incorporated, taste the polenta. Keeping in mind the saltiness of the parmesan cheese, add it little by little into the polenta until it’s just right.

Once all the cheese is melted, turn the pot of polenta over and dump onto a big clean cutting board or other large serving platter. It should look like a big yellow slab and start to harden a little. If that’s what it looks like then you did a great job. If not, order a pizza and open more wine.

To assemble the polenta and stew:

Now you need a knife or spatula. (Side note: I actually have a hand-carved wooden knife my mother gave me years ago. It was a carbon copy of her mother’s knife, which has to be at least 60 years old.) Cut 1” slabs of the polenta and lay each on a plate or shallow bowl. Take a ladle and pour the stew right over the polenta, making sure you get plenty of big chunks of beef to go with it. 

Enjoy with a light side salad. No need to add anything else because the meal is incredibly filling.

Last step, very important: Take a nap.

Leftovers

If everything worked out, there should be some leftovers to reheat the next day. In my house, we will cut slices of polenta about 1” thick, like a Texas Toast size, and throw it on a hot flat grill or pan. The cheese starts melting and the polenta gets a little crust on it. Toss some more warmed stew over the top, add a poached egg and you have another reason to take another nap.